Deadly tornadoes hit northern Texas

At least six people have been killed and about 100 injured after several tornadoes ripped through northern Texas, local media reports.

Three tornadoes were confirmed to have struck Granbury, in north-central Texas on Wednesday night (local time), particularly in two neighbourhoods of single family homes on the fringe of the city.

Hood County sheriff Roger Deeds has warned the death toll could rise as 14 people remain unaccounted for.

Up to 100 people have been injured and about 75 homes in and around Granbury have been "totally destroyed", sheriff Deeds said, according to USA Today.

All six of the people confirmed killed were found in or around houses in the Rancho Brazos neighbourhood in Granbury, sheriff Deeds said.

"At this point, right before I came out here, I've got 14 people that are unaccounted for," he told reporters.

"I had three different storms that came through but this is the worst one."

Matt Zavadsky, a spokesman for MedStar Mobile Healthcare, an agency that provides ambulance service to the region, says about 100 people have been injured in the twister.

In Granbury, pastor Dean Porter of Lake Granbury Christian Temple told a Dallas/Fort Worth ABC affiliate that looking out the front porch of his church at the parking lot he began to see "what looked to be a circular formation" and he ran back inside.

"Apparently what had happened from that point was that the tornado had formed over us, touched down on the opposite end of our property where there was a horse stable and some other buildings that were demolished," he said.

"Just past that point there was a gas plant, I think there was a pipeline that had broke.

"This particular night is not like anything that I've ever seen."

The US tornado season typically starts in the Gulf Coast states in the late winter, and then moves north with the warming weather, peaking around May and trailing off by July.

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